December 14, 2009

Conflagration Group on dA

Just a quick hello, letting you people know that if you are on deviantART there is now an official group for Conflagration #Conflagration-Film! Join it if you like, membership is open :)

December 10, 2009

Oil Paint Catalouge.

Well, Kitty and I often buy oil paint just because we can, and we want to but we never seem to know what we have, so I'm cataloguing them here! I'll put them in sections for brands, favourite being the top and not so gret paint brands at the bottom.

I have some not so great paint because sometimes not so great paint is sometimes excellent for encaustics or other things. so thats why I have... I'll put *'s beside by main colours, and # beside my favourite encaustic colours.

Its a long list but I barely use them all HAHA! The ones I use mainly are my 3 primary and white.
I like the other colours for random encaustics, and stuff since with encaustics I don't often mix, I use straight from the tube colours.  I'll also list my mediums and stuff as well!

Oh, as a side note, I don't use solvents at all ever. to clean my brushes I use Masters brush cleaner.

Mediums
M.Graham & Co. Walnut Alkyd Medium
Gamblin ColdWax Medium

Gamblin
Cerulean Blue Hue: pw4,pb15:1 Semi transparent
# Transparent Earth Red: pr101, Transparent
# Brown Pink pr101,pr149, Transparent
Radiant blue: pr29,pw6, Opaque
Radiant Red: pr149,pw6, Opaque
Radiant Yellow: py83,pw6, Opaque
Radiant Violet: pv 23,pw6, opaque
Radiant Green: Sample size
Quinacridone violet: pv19, transparent
# Transparent earth orange: py42,pr101, transparent
# Transparent earth yellow: py42, transparent
*Hansa Yellow Medium: py74

Holbein
Cinnabar Green: py43,53,128,pg36 Semi Opaque,
# Hydrangea blue: pb15, semi transparent

Winsor and Newton
Indigo:  pb15,pbk7,pb29 Transparent
* alizarin crimson: 1,2, pr83, Transparent
Naples Yellow: pw1,pw4,pbr24


Stevensons
# Cadmium Orange: po20,pr108 Opaque
# Paynes Grey:pbk11,pb29,
Cadmium Red Middle: pr108, Opaque
* Ultramarine Blue: pb29,
Azo Red Middle: pr188,pr170,pw4
* Titanium White: pw06, Opaque (Vehicle is safflower oil)
* Cadmium yellow Lemon: py35, opaque (I'll be switching to hansa yellow as my main colour when this is empty)


PBO XL (fast drying. matte colours)
Dioxazine purple: pv23, transparent
Raw umber:pbk7,pbr7, opaque
Titanium white: pw06, opaque
# Steel blue (x2): pb15, pb27,pbk7, semi opaque
English light green: pg7, pw6, py1,py65, semi opaque
Bright Green:pg7,py3, pw6, opaque
Crimson: pb3, semi opaque
Madder Carmine: pg8, pr5, pr12, Transparent
Green Earth: pg8, py3, pw6 semi opaque
Sap green: pg8 transparent
Yellow Ochre: py42, opaque
Cadmium yellow Deep imit.: po20,pw6,py65, semi transparent
Ultramarine Blue: pb29, Transparent
Cadmium yellow lemon imit.: pw6,py3, semi transparent
Cadmium red deep imit.:pr112,pr170, semi transparent
neutral grey: pbk7, pw6, opaque

November 25, 2009

New Encuastics

I did 6 paintings in the last 2 days... LOL :)

They're all encuastics. I was playing around with my tjanting tool, and my simmer plate and stuff. It worked out well.

Heres the art:

River Current
Seep
Sunday
Wind
Leaf
O Canada

As a Side note: They're all priced out for sale. Contact me if your interested.

October 06, 2009

White Pheonix Chrismtas card

SO I finished my Christmas card entry for the Opus Staff contest.  I think it turned out well. I'll be pissed if i don't win HAHA!


Okay as always, I'll give a little bit about the process:
I inked it in Prismacolour brown fineliner. Its like a sakura micron style pen, but its made by prismacolour.
Then I used frisket Film to cut out the blue box area, leaving everything else covered in frisket. I used my LetraJet Marker airbrush and Blue Pearl Promarker and airbrushed the bg in a circular pattern being sure to make some rather obvious rings. I peeled off the frisket, and then used Copic Markers on the rest of it. Cad Red, Peony, mauve shadow, line green, Yellow green, light pink, cad yellow, and a mix colour I made was my palette. I did light layers.

And thats that.
It was my first real attempt using the frisket film and I must say it was a delight. a real delight! I've had some people caution me that a lot of the low tack frisket film would tooth my paper badly but it doesn't at ALL! Definitely going to be a regular stock item for me HAHA!

Okay, so I have an airbrush Demo at work to do. October 17th. If you're in North Vancouver, stop by between 2pm and 4pm and get some airbrush lessons!

September 28, 2009

Andre

I finished another markers drawing today, this time of Andre using a slingshot. Markers with a touch of white gouache on Aquabee manga paper. I like how it turned out. :)

Andre's my leather worker and the brother of Malcolm.




Andre by guruubii on Artician

September 18, 2009

Sarah



My newest art work (kind of a redo of an old CG I did actually)! Markers (copic, and prismacolour) on Aquabee Marker Card.
I used a very tedious rewarding blending technique I learned. I'm pretty pleased with the result. I think the sketch looks good too, but  I never scanned it since noone ever showed an interst in my sketches anyways. this took a couple days. I'm going to bring it to my marker demo that i am doing in November.

On that, In October I have an Airbrushing demo I am doing in Opus North Vancouver. Basics of airbrushing - cleaning airbrush, basic usage, and some non traditional techniques like I've used in some of my abstracts. then in November I am doing an artists demo on markers in the Opus in north vancouver as well. I'll be showing some marker techniques there.

Well its bed time now, I can sleep with satisfaction :)

Which one of my characters should I draw next?

September 06, 2009

Embers and Frost

Well, 3 paintings on one day! A new record. Safe to say I'm getting over my slump. Now that the weathers cooling off I will start getting back into Encaustics too!

Anyways, I broke out my airbrush on 'Noplan'; the painting in my last post, and the techniques I used in there made me want to experiment more with airbrush.
There is a very basic technique that must airbrushers come across by accident, and most times unhappily. YOu get it many ways: paint too thin, brush too close, too much paint released too fast... you get a dot, then these little tendrils of paint wiggle out all over ruining your perfect fuzzy dot! It can be frustrating to a beginner. I happen to think that the effect is pretty neat, and exploited it in 'Noplan' quite a bit.

Today I painted 2 paintings for the anonymous art show they're called "Embers" and "frost". They're a pair (diptych)  and they were both donw using the spidering technique with airbrush in a differnt way from "Noplan".
 
Embers came first with a light coat of a couple different yellows, I then added some cad orange into the yellow and kept spraying. I never cleaned out the colour before adding more, it gave it a more gradual  transition between colours. I really saturated this one, and let the air push around the thick puddles of colour. as the air focused on one area it would push colour away revealing the under colours and create neat funnels of overlapping colours. 
Frost was after, i had it painted upside down the whole time and it wasn't until i turned it over (to the way it is now) did I actually like it HAHA! i used a more standard spidering technique this time, but i did alot more "drilling" to the base colour in this one. Both were gessoed with canvas coloured gesso, to the warm colour of the gesso i think really looked great peeking through the really cold blues.
And there it is. Not all airbrushing is flaming Harley tanks, and naked women with badly proportioned bodies.

Noplan - Painting for Work

So we put paintings up in frames we have for sale at work to show how the frames look with stuff in them because frames are often difficult sells since people cant envision the way the frame could work with a painting.
Ann asked me to paint on a 11x14 canvas panel last week to put them in the new contemporary frames at work and so I did. I got a rough photo in my poorly lit home before I took it to work. It wasn't quite dry so there are some cloudy spots around the mesh. I'm going to take better photos at work on tuesday, in the frame as well so you can see that.

Here's my painting. Can you guess how I made it?

 
I'll Tell you: I gessoed the canvas with Tri-Art Canvas Gesso (canvas colour) and did some rough blue and green patters with dry brushing. I then Took my Iwata Airbrush and with some Createx Green, white, and Golden Blue's and greens (switched often without cleaning the brush between colours. gave some nice blended colours) I would let out alot of paint onto the board so I had a fair puddle, then releasing the air only (dual action airbrush necessary) I pushed the paint around letting it spider when it wanted to and creating all the ripples and variations in colour. I played around with that for quite a while. The paint was quite thick. I took some mesh and pressed it into the paint to make little rough mesh marks, and I also sprayed using the mesh as a stensil.Then I waited a bit for it to get at least dry enough to work with. While it was drying I spray painted some of the mesh green. I then tore the mesh into strips and layed them on the canvas board. I dumped some polymer medium over the mesh (straight from the bottle *plop plop*) and used a palette knife to spread it out. I left some sweeps of polymer over the larger area but kept it quite thick where the mesh was to hold it in place. I made some adjustments to the mesh when it got shuffled.
I then took some Schminke powdered pigment (bronze) and dumped and sprinkled it around (haha, pretty expensive to dump but I did it anyways!). Finally I took some other mesh scraps folded it up and scratched some of the paint off the canvas, and rubbed it to distress the canvas a little. I dragged some of the polymer around too. 
Thats it! Took less than 2 hours I think total, but it looks alright. WHen i have a better photo of it completely dry I'll post it available as a print :)

August 26, 2009

Alberta wax Flowers

I finally did another "painting"... Art, work, piece... whatever. The point is - its art, and i did it. God its so satisfying. watching my fingers as I type covered in Canvas coloured gesso, its like being back in my comfy clothes.



How its made: I had a regular cheap 8"x8" canvas and added a couple coats of Tri-Art Canvas gesso (canvas colour. Its like a buff). i dry brushed some Tri- Art Burnt Umber on there to grunge it up, and then did a bit of dry brushing of the Gesso again.

Once that was dry I got my tin of Gamblin cold wax and with a small palette knife spread a thin layer on. I used that layer to stick down my dried flowers. I then took the cold wax and carefully spread it all over the top of the flowers to hold them in place. I varied the thickness of the wax in some areas. the Wax is not transparent completely so it will stay opaque on some areas. it will stay pretty close to how it looks now when its dry. The result is some varied textures and opacity. I think it has a neat antique look to it.

What do you think?

August 24, 2009

verve gallery auction

MY art is up for auction (as well as others) on Ebay right now! proceeds go to the Boys and girls club of Canada! This is a collection of pieces that were painted by 6 artists of various backgrounds. The pieces were painted live at the RDS Skate Supply Lower Lonsdale Block Party and Skate Competition. Each artist was given a 3' x 4' canvas and some spray paint (compliments of Opus Framing and Art).

my painting is in it:

Charity Painting by `guruubii on deviantART

View Ebay Auctions: [link]

My painting for auction: [link]

Please pass this along and spread the word for the sake of the chillin's and for my ego. HAHA! its for a really good cause :)
Thanks guys!

August 13, 2009

Definition: French Grey?

At my job at the art store we just got in stock the Prismacolour double ended markers and various sets. One of the sets is a french grey set. I've used the french greys and they are lovely but what i want to know is what is the definition of french grey?

to me they look almost like greyed sepia tones. Someone at my work said he thought they were half way between a cool grey and a warm grey but to me that ... is very off. the between would be a neutral grey and the french are far from neutral. The prismacolour website doesn't show very accurately the colours but in person the french greys are quite brown.

So my question to you is, what is the definition of French Grey?

July 12, 2009

2 oil paintings

Well last night was productive. i spent some time and finished the humming bird painting for mum. It doesn't photograph well, so I'll have to wait for a good day to take it outside once its dry and attempt a real photo.
I think it turned out rather well. thankfully I was able to salvage some of my fucked up areas.
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out overall.
The lighting on the branches turned out well, and i think the composition is pretty good as well.
I'm not used to painting realism. Not since highschool had I any desire to really. But this was mothers request, so this is what she got. Not saying its "realism". It looks more fantasy to me ;p 8"x24" cradled panel.



I spent a good 8 hours yesterday painting my second painting. From one of my own photographs of Hoodoo's from Dinosaur national park in Alberta. I had a few very nervous times painting this one, let me tell you! the grass i had painted as solid masses, and then painted the negative space. since I'm used to working light to dark with my markers, I thought that would be an easy thing to do! Not so much! HAHA! I kept confusing myself with what i was doing. Part of a learning curve I suppose.
I'm pretty happy overall with this painting as well. I'm going to wait until I get a decent picture before posting it anywhere for prints.
15"x12" Hand stretched 12duck canvas. (and I didnt stretch it, but the person who did, sucked. I might have to restretch)

there we go! oil paintings! Woot. Now I'm off to spend the day creating more art with Jammy, at her house!

July 02, 2009

Daquerminis - coming soon to paper near you :D



Well, here is the logo for what I will be doing in my spare time. Daqueran mini comics aka: Daquerminis. I'll do one per issue from now on and these will show up exclusively in the Daqueran print version only. This is one of the incentives to buy the print version instead of mooching free awesome comic from the online version only. Support your comic artists :)

July 01, 2009

Things going on, Daqueran

While I remind everyone, Daqueran is not mine, it is Kitty's comic and Kitty's comic alone, I have my own undertaking in Conflagration... I have been doing some things for Daqueran lately.

I completed the Exclusive content for Issue 2. A Daquer-mini comic, that will appear only in the print version. It will never ever show up anywhere else, expect the print version of Issue 2. So I guess its in your best interest to get that pre order in for Daqueran issue 2 eh? It's also got its own cute logo, that I will post online for promotion, but its as cute as can be. I'm finishing that one up today.

I've gotten a few emails lately, one about working on a Logo I did a while back (enhancing), and one about doing a sort of video talk about Toonboom to a school. We'll see how those go. i also have The Daquermini logo and Erica's Logos to do as well. so I'll go get on that :p

June 20, 2009

RDS block party

SO I googled the RDS block party and i found myself on a blog :p

Bottom Picture

LOL :p Wierd stage of the painting too HAHA!

My completed painting is going to be hanging in Verve Hair Lounge until its auctioned off. If you happen to be in North Vancouver, please stop by and see it :)


Charity Painting by `guruubii on deviantART

Working on Conflagration Bg's today. I dont know If I'm going to use the one I've done so far. Photoshop is easiest, but man it would look so much better traditionally....

Copics maybe?

I dont know...

May 18, 2009

Encaustics blogs

Encaustics How to Blogs

limnides expressed such an interest in Encaustics when I started posting mine, I started posting the blogs I've been wanting to do for a while. So far I've done 2 parts complete with photos:

Part 1

Supplies and tools. I went really in depth into which tools you would need, and how I improvised to make mine in a pinch. I've also included a list of pigments that should not be heated, so should be avoided in encaustics. I'll be expanding on that list as I get more information. I'll have to bug Maria again, I think I've asked her 100 times now HAHA!

Part 2
Making encaustic Medium. I step by step instruction on making encaustic medium from beeswax and resin crystals.

whats next?

Part 3-5 are coming up. I'll be making a walk through on doing an actual encaustic painting in the style that I use, since the internet is plugged full of tutorials on how to paint with the iron, but none on painting with brushes. I will also be doing a blog on safety for encaustics, and caring for encuastic paintings. So hopefully I will have sort of the definitive guide to painting with encaustics, since there doesn't seem to be anything that complete anywhere else.

What do you think?

May 16, 2009

Encaustics2 - evolution of decay

So Today was my second adventure in Encaustics. I'm doing pretty well with it i think, All things considered.
so there is my panting 'Decay'. It looks a little mouldy. I was surprised i ended up liking the finish result after my distressing melt-my-whole-painting-with-an-iron-and-watch-it-drip-on-the-floor fiasco.
So Encaustics is pretty interesting. If you haven't tried it, you should. its great fun :)
I used many transparent oil paint colours, R&F encaustic Medium (I'll be making my own from now on, i have 15lbs of beeswax, i just need to buy the resin), and some iridescent powdered pigment. Check it out:
Thats my little silicone muffin wrapper that I use as my palette XD I have tons of them I set them on a cookie sheet over the burners on my stove LOL. The irridescent looked like melted gold :D Neat!

I've discovered that the biggest enemies of encaustics are impatience, and too much heat. I burnt some of my pigment when I wasnt watching the temperature of my pots, and I melted off most of my painting when I had it looking pretty good, and I was never able to recover it. Oh well, Life goes on.


So here is a detail close up of the bottom corner. I used some Opaque pigment in Medium to achieve that mould look. I was surprised it turned out as well as it did. OMG I had one heck of a scare with it :D I accidently spread that colour over the whole thing HAHA! I melted it off though, thank goodness :B


I buffed it to a shiney shine with a nice soft cloth and I was pretty pleased with it over all.
If I was smart, I'd get painting that humming bird I need to do, but I'm out of mineral spirits too. Oh well :B HAHA!
Hope you like it :D




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Now playing on Winamp: Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

May 09, 2009

Painting Updates

I have even more on the go now, HA HA! I can;t seem to stop starting new things and experimenting. I think my "on the go" painting count is up to 5 now. One Acrylic that will likely be finished in Oils since I'm not terribly fond of acrylic, one Oil abstract, the humming bird, once concept for an Encaustic painting, and a plein-Air piece that I probably wont touch anymore.

Okay First off, the Humming bird for my aunt Cathy. I work on it very infrequently because I am using oils, and a great deal of layering. I've gotten to a point where its starting to look done ish, but there is a lot of work to do on the branches in particular. The preview I've posted here is a bad photo that took a bit ago. Its drying in an awkward place with bad light so its hard to get a good picture and getting it down from its tower is a bit tricky. So deal with it. A good photo will come when it's finally done... Anyways, as you can see, its coming along. The humming bird is a little bit fantasy but you know... thats me bebeh!

I think it should be pretty nice when its done... I hope. When its done Mum will pay me the remainder.

What do you think? Any Suggestions for how I should finish it?


Next up, The encaustic painting I did today. Whoo! after so much anticipation I finally did one! HAHA! Anticipation for me anyways, I've had the supplies for so long now. I'm not 100% pleased with it. I think its a bit gloopy for me, but I still like the effects, and I had fun doing it. The luminosity of it is really stunning.
I used a few transparent oil colours, and some B.C. Beeswax, and R&F encaustic Medium since I havent gotten up the courage to make my own medium yet (and i haven't got the Resin... its sitting on hold at work).

I painted with it on my easel in a verticle position to get the nice drips, and I even took a heat gun and melted spots on the panel to create some lighter areas where the wood of the panel shows though and make more drips. I like the over lapping textures of the smooth wax pouring over the scrumbly wax.

I collaged a couple bone photos into it as well, as an experiment for a future project. Overall It turned out well and it was a promising experiment to lead into more adventurous encaustic work.

I've got a little Plein-air wet canvas carying apartatus I'm going to share on Experimental Guru later on as well! I made it to hold and carry my wet canvases when we went plein-air painting last weekend. It served very useful! That should be interesting! check it out :D

May 07, 2009

Character Bio: Victor


Who is Victor?
Victor Falconer is one of the main characters from my film, Conflagration. He is the leader of a Village inhabited by people known as the Agouti. They are a group of kind and understanding trades people. The village has a reputation of being very peaceful and generous to other tribes. Victors Father Gerard was the former Leader, but he stepped down, and Victor has stepped up to fill his place.
Victor has always been a very kind and understanding leader, and has developed many close friendships in the village. He has a good sarcastic sense of humor and can put a positive spin on most things. He is willing to take risks and stand up for what he believes is right. He likes animals but his fathers Gryphon, Abade doesn't like Victor very much.

What was the inspiration for Victor?
Well Victor is the most like me of all my characters. Most of my art is inspired by music of some kind and I think that Victors theme music would be Celtic Fiddle medleys. The cheerful upbeat music, and the feelings of a great community, wholesome fun, tight knit families - all that inspires Victor.

Now playing on Winamp: The Rankin Family - Christy Campbell Medly


(This song very strongly inspires the relationship between Victor, Jack, Nakia,Penelope and Gerard for me.)

Victors relationship with other characters
Victor gets along really well with pretty much everyone, but he does tend to tailor his behavior to each person.
In regards to his daughter Nakia, He mostly observes her and lets her make mistakes. Particularly in watching her relationship with Jack develop through the film. When Nakia complains about how much Jack irritates her, he is more likely to sit and listen to her spill her guts, saying nothing until she's worn herself out.
He has the same relationship with his father Gerard, but opposite. Gerard will keep quiet while Victor vents. Occassionally though Gerard will offer some advice.
With Jack on the other hand, he tends to communicate more with. If Jack said something about Nakia being impossible or rude Victor would defend her, or agree... since she can be pretty impossible sometimes.


Artwork Featuring Victor



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Now playing on Winamp: The Rankin Family - Mull River Shuffle
via FoxyTunes

April 19, 2009

Opus Self Portrait

K, last time I posted some previews of the sculpture for my Opus Self portrait :p

here it is finished. The photo isn't great, but I'll get some detail shots later on.
Its Sculpey, painted with gouache, and acrylics with Gloss sculpey glaze for the drool on the spider :)

April 13, 2009

Sculpture, artician and stuff

I spent the better part of the morning modifying my Artician layout. I'm pretty pleased with how it looks with the exception of one thing.The bottom of the modules side has one corner missing, and doesn't line up right. Oh well, Its pretty minor, but It still annoys the heck out of me LOL.
I'm gonna change the header later as well, but right now it matches this blog too :)
well, anyways...

Art news, I'm working on a self portrait for work. We aren't required to, but we are encouraged to. I'm going a little crazy on mine, turning the panel backwards so its like a box, and incorporating the frame as well. its going to be like a diorama of a completely random bizarre situation. I've already sculpted little guru. I've got a couple bad photo previews as you can see.
The photos aren't great, and its not a great likeness of me, but i think its still recognizable as me. I need to fix a lot of cracks in the coat and add all my buttons to it too though.

Next up is Kitty as a unicorn/centaur LOL :p

I have quite a bit of work to do on it, and I'd like it done before the staff meeting on the 16th too. hee hee hee :D

I've got so many paintings on the go, it might be a good idea to finish one.
I've also got a rough sketch for Aida's art Nouveau contest, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish it :B
anyways, i better get to work on some of this stuff :D
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Now playing on Winamp: Cutting crew - I just died in your arms tonight
via FoxyTunes

April 06, 2009

Website updates

I spent a bit of time today updating some of the graphics on the conflagration pages on gurukitty.com. I never got around to updating the bg colours for the graphics so it looked pretty tacky, lol. So I added some links for the animals on the character page, updated graphics and thats about it. Oh, I posted the animatic on the conflagration page as well, and added some of the animation tests to the character pages, but its not new stuff. If you keep up with my art, you'd have seen them already.

I also posted a little blog on gouache paint over at Experimental Guru.

Kthanks :D

March 24, 2009

Airbrush painting


Posted my first real painting with an airbrush last night. I am so pleased with it :)
I used a series of home made stencils for the background, and freehand the bottom half with airbrush. Then i painted some gouache details, and a bit of beach on the ground, and finally painted in all the mist in the BG. that's when I though I should pull some colour up to the top and added some of the orange foliage. I then pulled off the stencil masking off Bala, and coloured her in markers. Some of the airbrush sprayed underneath the stencil, and that worried me at first, but in the end I think it helped create some unity with her environment.
What do you think?

March 22, 2009

Conflagration Trailer - Animatic

So here is the animatic for the Conflagration Trailer. I know it doesn't seem like much to you guys watching it, but its the first peek at the film really, so to me its pretty significant. Its slow going, but I still feel accomplished :D

Its really rough, I'm not 100% on the timing, and the music isn't quite what I wanted, but it was the best I could do at the time :D

March 20, 2009

Daqueran in FHM

I'd like to say Ive been creating up a storm, but I haven't. I've been mostly experimenting with my new toys. I spent a ton of money getting the supplies I need to get my encaustics going, and finally tried to do it, except the hot plate I had didnt get hot enough to keep the wax molten, so I'm on another quest to get more stuff.
I need:
  • A hot plate that will get to 200ºC
  • Resin (it's on hold at opus, forgot to buy it)
  • Mortar and pestle (To grind resin)
So, that's not too bad. I got a decent old timey scale for weighing my ingredients, and some metal bowls to make my hot palette and tons and tons of wax!

We've also been experimenting with the airbrush a little. I wasn't too happy with how this paint behaved on my sculpey so iI got some airbrush medium and I'll see if I can get better results with gouache. I've also got to experiment with how the airbrushing looks and reacts to marker paper. I got illustration board though, just in case, and because I like it! I bought bigger boards because the smaller sizes were out of stock, and then spent 20 minutes cutting them down to my sizes. Then the shipment came today with the sizes I wanted. Woof. Next time I'll get the full sized sheets and cut anyways, since its $1 cheaper.

SO anyways, ya, Daqueran was featured as one of the top 20 webcomics in the Estonian For Him Magazine (fhm). Thats pretty exciting! Kitty scanned the article! Check it out :D we translated it sort of, online and it seems like just a little synopsis, but it put it at #18 for the top 20 webcomics. Thats pretty impressive :D The #1 spot is pretty dissapointing. Stick figures with no real humor except whats been rehashed. I'm happy Kitty was choosen at all, and #18 is pretty respectable too, but still, stick figure comics being #1? c'mon! lets get some artists in the #1 spot sometimes!

So tomorow is Conflagration day! I plan to spend the entire day working on Conflagration and getting SOMETHING accomplished. I find it really difficult to work on it most days, because I need full concentration on it, and I'm never alone, so tomorow being my day off alone, it is a good plan to dedicate! So I hope to post something soon. Would anyone be interested in a trailer Animatic? of should I just wait and post the trailer? rough animation? anything? Feedback would be awesome! thanks :D

March 12, 2009

Airbrush

So, Tomorrow I'm getting an airbrush! Kitty and I are going to pay half each to get a delux set. Its got the Iwata Smart Jet compressor, Iwata Eclipse CS Airbrush and a ton of other goodies. I'm terribly excited to share all my info on Experimental Guru once i get the hang of it! Its going to make my maquette painting so much easier, and it will make painting models to sell at conventions really fun and awesome :D

March 07, 2009

Encaustics

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Now playing on Winamp: Tracy Chapman - Cold Feet
via FoxyTunes WOO! so there was an Encaustics demo at Opus today, and I was so happy to be able to see it all! It was definitely inspiring and totally awesome! I'm going to be experimenting with this technique as soon as possible!
For those that don't know, Encaustics is painting with pigmented wax! it has an awesome depth and texture to it!

I've also found that I have developed a considerable bank of knowledge in regards to traditional art supplies in my head. As a result I've now started a separate blog for the purpose of sharing that information. its called Experimental Guru! I'd love if you followed it. I'll not only be adding all my product knowledge in the form of reviews, but also tutorials, general technical information, studio safety information, and other tidbits of information. I'll also be making sure to properly tag and organize the blogs so that you can easily browse and search.

If you have tutorials please leave a comment linking to them over on that blog so I can properly promote your tutorials and information as well! lots of stuff from the United states (and around the world for that matter) I dont know about or have access to, so if you have related information on specifics, I can add that to my list :D

I'm pretty excited!

My new oil painting is still too wet to apply my tape layer. I think I have at least another week to wait! HA! I should have done the base layer in acrylics so it would dry fast, but - live and learn.
My Hummingbird painting is finally dry enough to work on the next layer so I will be doing that this weekend I hope as well.
I've got 2 TruFax comics in the works right now, that I should be posting one of this weekend as well.

**New, Trufax #2 posted today!

March 02, 2009

Abstract and WIP

I completed an abstract painting a week or 2 ago, but its still as wet as the day I painted it in some places. I Photographed it anyways, since spring is coming and here that means the sun and cloud swap out all day.

I also Photographed another stage of WIP of my painting for Aunt Cathy. (seen here) I ran out of mineral spirits but it's starting to come together it seems. I'm quite fond of the Transparent Red Earth, and the Brown Pink Gamblin paints I got! They are exactly the colours I needed! thank goodness!

I was a little hesitant about painting an animal without an under drawing, but it seems to be turning out okay so far! I like the structure the bird has, and I like how hes looking in contrast to the BG so far. Nice! i ran out of mineral spirits right in the middle of my painting, and I couldn't stretch it anymore so I had to stop.

I'm doing some caricature portraits of some people at work that will be working their way into the mini comics I started. The Comics will be posted on Drunk Duck and you can always see the updates on the feed on this blog to the side. Hope you like them!

About Abstract

I'll admit, I always hated abstract. I never saw the point of it! i never thought it took much skill or had that much emotional basis, or any skill to do. Now that I've done some myself, I'm seeing things differently. It's art work based out of pure passion for art - the need to create. I find myself just eager to do it more and more. I don't have to worry about anatomy, or structure. I can take the knowledge I've gained and just let go. I can create compositions and arrays of colours without needing it to necessarily make sense. Actually it was 2 people who brought me out of my abstract shell - Limnides, & Ladydove7. Seeing their work made me see the passion in these types of work. Then I started going to galleries where they had so much abstract it blew my mind, and I actually started to understand and enjoy looking at them as well.

Anyways, so thats all for today. I haven't done anything interesting with Conflagration unfortuntely :(



February 24, 2009

New painting

I did a new oil painting last night. It looks all right I think. It's got some pretty heavy layers of wax and paint so It will be a while before its dry enough to take out and photograph, and it will never be scannable.
I've noticed a trend when I pick up a panel to do an abstract, I tend to lean towards Greens or Purples. I wonder why that is? It's not really something I see mirrored in all my work, just in abstract.

I wonder who else has little quirky things like that? Do share :D

February 21, 2009

Galkyd Foo'



So I was painting the first players of my painting for my aunts Christmas present, Andi was trying to be careful to use enough Galkyd to Make it dry fast enough for me to work on it by the next weekend. Well i was good, all until i got to the bright spot. I dont think i used ANY galkyd there. This morning it was still almost as wet as the day I painted it. Very Annoying. It might be okay to paint over tomorrow though. I hope. There is going to be A LOT more to this, but I thought it looked nice as it is as well. and Its something to post about, to keep me motivated.

I have another drawing in mind as well. I might make it a combination of vellum and acetate again, but It might just be markers since I haven't done that in a little while. I think I'll probably play with my Effects for my Fire animation probably and maybe add a few more inbetweens just to smooth out the ending part a bit, but I'm moving onto trying to design the style of my water as well (which prompted my new drawing idea as well).

So there's my news, sorta.
More tomorrow maybe

February 16, 2009

Fire animation



Watch the HD version on Mytoons

My Fire animation test, As promised !
Its just a rough little test in colour and plain clean up versions of a very basic style. I Don't know how I want to colour it for the final version yet. i'll probably do more colour layers.

Joseph Gilland, The 20 year Disney animation Vet, and The former head of Vancouver Film School's 2d Animation department (and someone I admire) Finally launched his boo Elemental Magic. If you have ANY interest in Effects animation you might want to go to the book launch! Check It out on Facebook I'm going I hope! I want to pick up a copy! he's possibly the best effects animator I've ever seen!

Well, That's all I have in me right now.

February 12, 2009

More Fire


So I've been playing around with fire a little more. I am tinkering with the idea of not adding effects to the fire animation at all, and getting the desired effects by lighting the scene and characters accordingly. We'll see how easy it is to do batch processing of my animation. If it processes well and easily then well, that would be great, I could add lots .
So ya, here are some of my colour sketches I did in my Claire Fontaine Sketchbook today. Its got really nice soft paper, but I do find I enjoy a little tooth more in my sketch books. Monday I'll hopefully get an animation test done for the Fire. Probably use those torch poses and animate that. I'd like to see if I can have something to show for all this obsessing. Maria said she liked my fire today, and described it as 'leafy' in a good way! I liked that.

I'm getting some Pilot G-Tec pens (yellow, orange, and red) tomorrow as well, so I'll be doing some ink sketches of fire as well. the pens aren't waterproof so i like to add some water and get some nice effects from those pens . I'm also buying some discontinued animation paper reinforcements (slot peg holes) since they're only $5 for a box of 500, its not something I can turn away from.

Well, So I hope I come up with more than doodles soon.

Fire


I obsess on certain subjects. Right now as some people know, I've been trying to come up with some way of doing the fire in my film. After Effects proving to be a huge pain in the ass (especially when no one I know is able/willing to help me on that topic) I've been forced to another option - Photoshop. I'll do all my effects in Photoshop, and then import them in Premiere. Seems to be the only way really. Having said that, I've been trying to come up with a look for the fire and smoke to compliment the style in Conflagration, and I think I've done that. I'm pretty happy with the overall look of that. Of course, that's a design on paper, with pencil crayon. the next step is applying some effects in photoshop in a simple enough way that I can make an action to apply to all the images of the animation. We shall see. Anyways, I'm obsessing. I'm watching every animated movie I know if to see how they've done fire. Sometimes its got lots of glow effects, sometimes there are no effects, its just straight flat colours of animation but the lighting of the characters is used to create the glow, and sometimes its a mix of both. I'll jsut have todecide what I want to do. I've always enjoyed effects animation anyways. This weekend I'll try to do some fire animation and see how applying the effects looks.

February 09, 2009

Daqueran Mug


Black and white mugs available :) They have black and white Bg's instead of the green, and will wrap around the entire mug. battling his way to your brew :D

After Effects

Having so many friends who use Adobe After Effects, and use them with 2d animation I am shocked at how difficult it is to get any help. Not even any tips or ideas from anyone. Its incredibly frustrating. I just want to know how people import and apply effects to animation. Is that such an extraordinary request? I share my techniques with people, I think its nice to help people.

Well, I'll tell you one thing - If I ever do figure this out, I'm making some video tutorials on it. There is a severe lack of help from anywhere. The tutorials from Adobe are useless. Lots of people say after effects is like photoshop, but its so far off the mark its not even funny.

Well, I've managed very little on my own, but I did manage something! Thats farther along than I was last week!

I set a simple BG behind it and applied a variety of Glow effects to the flame itself.

Candle Text, Click to view (embedd codes didn't work)

The flame was just a couple frames I drew with my mouse quickly so obviously the animation is sub-par but as far as attempting effects, its a demo.

One of my other concerns is exporting these scenes and retaining quality to reimport them into premiere for final composition. I'll need a new computer before this film is complete, with not only Gads of Ram but a decent sized hard drive and a good graphics card.

Well, I hope to make more progress soon!


----------------
Now playing on Winamp: Tracy Chapman - Tell It Like It Is
via FoxyTunes

February 08, 2009

Planning for 2009

I know 2009 Is already in full gear (Feb already!) but Tax season is also in full gear! I'm compiling all my expenses and income and making spread sheets to claim all my art expenses.
My friend Leah has been helping me out with getting started. I can claim all my art relatd expenses so long as my income increases (art) for the next 5 years. If I dont, I cant keep claiming LOL! So this is incentive to keep my art income increasing!
 Like I mentioned in my last post, I am planning on conventions and galleries. This will also mean paying for memberships to places like the North Vancouver Arts Council, and other artists organizations. I'm going to respond to "calls for artists" and show as much as possible. This includes having art in the Annonymous art show Every year as well.
 I'm understandably excited and motivated by this :)

I've got an 8x24 cradled panel I gessoed the other day. it's going to be a painting for my aunt for next Christmas. I'm painting a humming bird in Oil. Should be neat :)
I hope.
My mums paying for it ;) She'd never pay ful price so I better find out what she WILL pay LOL

Right now I'm working on a sculpture of Tik, that is getting bigger and bigger than I planned haha! I'm hoping to make a mold and cast some copies to sell at some conventions.
we shall see :)

February 07, 2009

First Posts are the hardest

Well, Here we go. First posts are always a little awkward :p

I'll summarize my intentions :)

Starting this year, I plan to really gear towards being "an artist" as opposed to being a freelancer with small jobs filling spare time.
This year I'm starting to keep better records of my expenses and claiming them, as well as making better receipts and tracking of commissions and freelance work.

I'm also planning on answering more calls for artists and getting my work in local galleries. Decembers Anonymous art show where I sold my painting was pretty awesome, I'd like to do more of that!

Kitty and I are also planning on attending any and all comic conventions we can this year to sell art work and the Daqueran comics. Very exciting!

I spent a few hours modifying a template to make this blog layout so I hope you like the look!

What to Expect here:

  • I'll be posting sketches and works in progress for Conflagration and other Projects
  • Posts about my achievements and trials of working on the projects
  • Status reports of the projects!
Should be a lot of fun I hope :D
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